This excursion focuses on the sights of the Eternal City to be found close to the capital's central station, which is named Termini.
We suggest beginning at the Piazza Cinquecento, which can be translated as the Square of the Five Hundred. Why is it called that? Come on our excursion to find out!
You'll have a chance to see the colossal ruins of one of the most ancient of Roman bath complexes – Diocletian's Baths. The national museum of baths is located in the former Carthesian monastery.
On Republican Square, which is also known as the Exedra Square, we'll see the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which was designed by Michelangelo at the height of the Renaissance. Here too we find the so-called meridian, which served as a sun-dial for Ancient Rome.
A little further you'll walk along Via Cavour – a street named after the first Prime-Minister of the newly-united Italy.
The enormous basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, consecrated to the Virgin Mary, is also to be found in this part of Rome. Before the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, and the relocation of the Papal residence there, Santa Maria Maggiore was one of Rome's largest churches, and we'll tell you its fascinating story.
After walking through Rome's pokey medieval-era streets you come to an arch erected in honour of the Roman Emperor Gallienus. Beside it stands a church dedicated to the ancient holy martyrs Vitus and Modestus – that has two facades, and two different entrances.
Finally we finish our excursion in the middle of the extensive spaces of Victor-Emmanuel II Square. Here we find public gardens within which the ruins of Ancient Roman nymphs have been preserved, and also a medieval “Magic Door” - on which there are mystical symbols and signs which have often been interpreted, yet which no-one has yet managed to decipher.